Emmerald: What kind of music did you listen to growing up and how, if at all, do you think that influenced your musical production?
Larry Heard: I think I listened to the typical stuff that was on the radio at the time, you know, soul music, blues, gospel. I think radio was a little more diverse back then than it seems to be right now, as far as being able to hear a variety of styles on one station. That was pretty much it, soul, blues, jazz, and gospel. Later into my teen years I, started to pick up rock music and jazz, fusion, more abstract styles. How they play a role in what I do, I'm not exactly sure, but it probably governs the way I think about music. Since I do play a little bit of bass and guitar and I play drums and keyboards, which are the nucleus of the rhythm section, I put things in the context of the rhythm section.
Emmerald: So when you are creating a song, do you tend to centre it around the rhythm or the chord progression or the melody, or does it vary from song to song?
Larry Heard: It varies from song to song. It just depends on what element I stumble across first.
Emmerald: You are one I would call a seasoned artist, and one most would definitely call legendary artist. Do you think you bring a different perspective to creating music, particularly music that's classified as house or dance or electronica?
Larry Heard: Well like I just said, the rhythm section principle is there in how I make music. A lot of people now just come in throwing sounds on top of beats and it would be arguable whether some of those things are music or not. When I make music, it's based in melodies and point/counter point and just some of the basic things that are taught in music theory. I mean it's not samples, just stuff lifted from other records, you know, it's all out of my own being. I'm not the only one who does that. There're a lot of guys out there who you can tell are experienced when it comes to crafting songs. Guys like Blaze, Masters at Work, Osunlade, there's a bunch of them out there.
Emmerald: You mention Blaze, Masters at Work, Osunlade, are there other artists now that you listen to or that you really like?
Larry Heard: There are a lot. There are so many artists that I can't sort all that information in my brain to recall it like that. What have I picked up lately?
Emmerald: Sure. What are the last five records you'd bought?
Larry Heard: That's actually a little tricky too being in Memphis, and being in the States, period. It's tricky to find out about the music because there are so few forums for it. That's definitely a major difference from say fifteen or twenty years ago. You could be in your house and you could hear the mixes on the radio on Friday and Saturday night. That's just a forum that was available that's not anymore.
Emmerald: Right, I guess things were a little more accessible then than they tend to be now. You have to have the internet nowadays in order to keep up.
Larry Heard: Yes, you definitely have to seek it out.
Emmerald: But there is a new record store in Memphis, I think on Highland?
Larry Heard: Yes, there's a store that I don't want to talk too much about.
Emmerald: OK.
Larry Heard: You know with the music, people from South Africa know this better than people in America know: the music comes from the black culture. And the black people in the U.S. are the ones who don't know anything about it, while the European culture has taken custody of it. European culture has taken the music and basically tried to change the genre names. Every few months they're coming up with a new genre name to take custody of the same thing that basically originated out of the black culture in America.
